SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has lauded a diversification of its offering and expansion of geographic reach by finalising its acquisition of AskGamblers.com.
An agreement was reached by the B2B betting and gaming supplier to purchase the affiliate network from Catena Media for €45m in December 2022, as the latter sought to streamline its focus on North America.
GiG will integrate the former Catena European holdings of Askgamblers.com, Johnslots.com and Newcasinos.com – as well as ‘several smaller domains’ – into its GiG Media division.
Richard Brown, CEO of GiG said: “We are thrilled to add another top casino affiliate site to our portfolio, and believe it holds immense growth potential.
“The acquisition also broadens our geographical footprint and increases revenue diversity both geographically and client wise, reducing the overall operational risk.“
GiG’s takeover of the AskGamblers network was carried out via a share purchase of the Catena’s and Catena Media doo Beograd’s issued shares by Innovation Labs Ltd, a GiG subsidiary.
The total consideration of €45m is has a cash-free and debt-free basis, with €20m paid today – the date of finalisation – and with a further two payments of $10m and €15m due on 31 January, 2024 and 31 January, 2025.
Looking ahead, GiG states its management is focused on improving AskGamblers performance and adopting a clear strategy for its own media SEO and marketing technology.
The group aims to accompany this approach with an integration of AskGamblers ‘extensive knowledge’, targeting growth and profitability for both its new domain and wider operations, setting a goal of higher revenue and an improved EBITDA margin of ‘between 60-70%’.
GiG anticipates ‘operational and commercial opportunities’ post-transaction, whilst in the initial announcement of the deal back in January, the firm observed that AskGamblers ‘generated revenue of €12.9m in the first nine months of 2022 with an EBITDA of €8.4m’.
